We arrived to find very low water and a challenging boat launch. I found the path of least resistance and soon enough we had lines in the water just before noon on Wednesday. We trolled our way thru the winding Deschutes Channel with favorite lures in tow. Wickiup is a tricky one when it comes to tracking the channel and with our lures running deep, I continually found myself zigging and zagging to hold them in the zone. A couple hours passed and I was beginning to get that feeling that this was another one of those “dang… should have been here yesterday” scenarios I have found myself in so many times before. Luckily, that feeling was soon overcome by the strike of a solid brown trout. Moments later, Chris was slipping the net under a gorgeous male brown of around five pounds. We got a photo and sent the fish along his way and got back to the game with new possibilities in mind. The day progressed with consistent action. We landed a few more fish including another five pounder for me and Chris faired well with his first trout ever being a nice 25 inch hookjaw that was a bit over 5 ½ lbs. We lost several quality fish after brief battles while trolling the depths of the channels as well, and by the end of the day we were smiling from our success while holding high hopes of what may come the next morning.

The following morning the water was flat as glass. I had hoped for a little chop which would have inspired me to take us up the Deschutes Arm to cast some lures on spinning gear, but these were not the best conditions for that kind of fishing. It took an hour to get the first bite which brought a handsome four pound male to the boat on my line. Not long after, as I was hard ripping my Lucky Craft Pointer 128 in the Aurora Black finish, my rod folded over hard and line began to peel erratically from my reel. The huge brown stripped off an easy 60 yards of line before stopping to give me some powerful headshakes and then took off again. I was way into my backing when it stopped for more headshakes and then it ended abruptly as the smart, boney mouthed trout successfully threw the hooks. To say the least… it hurt. Hahaha! I was shaking from the event as we reset out lines, and Chris had a new sense of the potential we were up against.

Almost an hour had passed and we were coming up on a favorite point. As the boat passed over it the graph lit up with a nice mix of baitfish and browns hanging just off the bottom. I held on tight and ripped my rod steadily as our lures fluttered into the zone. It was a perfect textbook experience to visualize my lure coming up on those fish and suddenly feel the heaving headshakes of another big brown on the attack. After failing to throw the lure the fish surged straight to the surface and launched completely out of the water three times in a row with a couple of cartwheels for added affect. It was over a hundred yards behind the boat so it was tough to tell for sure, but I was pretty sure it was a hen and was figuring at least 7 lbs. The fish went deep after that initial surface performance and I slowly bulldogged her towards the boat. There was a little give and take once I had her up close and I took it easy until I could tell she had given up the battle, and into the net she slid. There was some serious weight in that net and I wasted no time in hooking the scale to the net to find out just how big she was. It read a solid 13 ½ lbs which after subtracting the 2 ¾ lb net totaled right around 10 ¾ lbs for the fish. I was a bit stunned as I hoisted the heavy trout into the livewell for a little fresh oxygenated water before getting some photos and sending her back to her deep water haunt. She taped an even 29 inches. I didn’t take the time to get a girth measurement because I really wanted to get her back to the cool thermocline as fast as possible. She swam away strong… life was good!

We continued to work that run for an hour and I was making the last lap before moving on to fresh territory when Chris’ rod bounced and bobbed hard and his line popped from the downrigger clip and quickly became taught again as he claimed control of the gear. The fight was on with another good fish. About half way in the line went limp and Chris stopped reeling as he declared the fish was lost. I was scanning the water and saw a wake pushing towards us fast as the big fish was running at the boat just below the surface. I saw slack line being drug through the water as well and I hollered for him to reel like the devil because the fish was still on! Luckily the fish was hooked well and soon the line was tight and the big buck was dancing around below the surface next to the boat. A minute later he was in the net and Chris had a stunning trophy brown trout to his credit. Talk about beginners luck! The fished taped 28 inches and weighed in at 8 ½ lbs… The good life had just gotten a lot better. We released the fish and trolled onward… fat and happy.

The action dropped off considerably after that. I scratched up another hen of around 4 ½ lbs and another smaller one. A front was pushing in and we decided to call the day short and head home. Success was ours and it was nice to get home in time to shower and get out for a couple celebratory beverages with my beautiful and amazing girlfriend, Lynn. Happy birthday to me! Hahaha…